Arqiva and Samsung’s 5G UK Fixed Wireless Trial Goes LIVE in London

Wireless infrastructure builder Arqiva and Samsung have confirmed that London’s first trial of an ultrafast 5G based Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband network, which uses the 28GHz millimetre wave radio spectrum band to offer multi-Gigabit speeds, has gone live in London.

Apparently the network is being tested over a distance of “several hundred meters” and has already achieved a stable two-way mmWave link with downlink speeds of “around 1GB per second at the CPE” (we suspect they mean Gigabits per second, rather than GigaBytes but either are plausible).

The trial is due to run for 4 months and there are plans to extend its coverage to additional nearby buildings. Faster speeds will also be tested (similar trials have reached speeds of around 4-10Gbps).

Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO of Arqiva, said:

“This trial is the first of its kind in Europe, let alone the UK – and we are hugely excited about the high data rates, low latency and growth potential we’re going to be able to demonstrate. Though only a proof of concept at this stage, we are confident that this trial with Samsung will showcase not only 5G FWA’s potential for delivering ultrafast broadband but also the value of the 28GHz band in helping achieve this.

We’ve seen a great level of response so far from our entire customer base, including leading mobile operators, fixed broadband providers, broadcasters and media companies. This trial will be particularly interesting for this audience as it looks to a future of ubiquitous UHD, and the file sizes that go with it.”

The trial consists of a Radio Access Unit, which is located on the rooftop of Arqiva’s Fitzrovia office and this wirelessly links to an easily installable CPE (router) that is located by a window inside Arqiva’s nearby headquarters. Meanwhile Samsung’s kit implements “intelligent beam-forming technology and high-frequency mmWave spectrum” to provide the high bandwidth connectivity.

In commercial implementations it’s envisaged that a compact access unit could be mounted on lampposts or similar street furniture to provide reliable Gigabit-per-second service to neighbourhoods and businesses alike. The final component is Samsung’s virtualized core, which is responsible for managing user connections and data routing from Arqiva’s network to the internet (this is running on Arqiva’s data centre servers).

We should point out that the first official 5G standard isn’t expected to be ready until March 2018 and commercial services won’t roll-out until 2020. Mobile based 5G will however require lower frequencies (e.g. 700MHz and the 3-4GHz bands) and these may not deliver the same sort of multi-Gigabit performance as the FWA setup being tested above, although coverage will be better.